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New Puppy Recruits!

This month saw the welcome of some super cute recruits to SARDA England! New, potential future Search and Rescue Dogs attended their first national training meets. And it was ‘awwws’ and paws all around!

But after all the puppy cuddling its down to serious business. Puppy training initially involves socialising, basic obedience and familiarisation with stock animals. But as they progress SARDA England’s search dogs are trained to ‘Air Scent’, this means they do not as a general rule track the missing person.

The dogs will react to a human scent being blown towards them by the wind or air currents. In bad conditions a dog can cover large areas of ground in the search for a missing person.

The dog is very sensitive to any human scent it finds and will immediately follow that scent to where a human is located. It will then indicate to its handler to let them know it has had a ‘Find’

How do the trainers gain the dogs interest to become search dogs?

All of our training is undertaken with praise and rewards for the dog. Some are happy to work for their squeaky toy while others prefer food!

Search and Rescue dogs don’t only work on the fells and mountains. Dogs help to search for missing people in a variety of circumstances.

Just a few days before Christmas in Cornwall, search dog Blitz found a missing 51year old woman in critical condition in deep undergrowth after spending two cold nights outside. She was treated by rescuers before being passed to the ambulance service.

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Please can you spare the price of a chew toy to support the invaluable training of these incredible future life savers?